The concussion files
As denials pile up, NFL settlement ignores ‘critical’ tests

Attorneys promised a “state of the art” process to diagnose former players suffering from brain disease. But basic tools still aren’t being used, The Washington Post found, saving the NFL millions.

By Will Hobson
August 20, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EDT

When Chuck Arrobio’s memory began to falter, he seemed like an ideal candidate for one of the more innovative benefits of the NFL’s landmark concussion settlement. ... A Minnesota Viking for just one season, 1966, Arrobio worked for decades after football as a dentist. But before he retired in 2016, he displayed alarming signs of cognitive decline. On a few occasions, Arrobio’s assistants narrowly prevented him from filling the wrong tooth or numbing the wrong side of a patient’s mouth.

A neuropsychologist diagnosed Arrobio with dementia in 2017, his medical records show, and speculated the cause was chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the brain disease linked to football. The devastating news came with some consolation: The NFL’s concussion settlement, years in the making, had finally taken effect, promising care and payments into the millions for former players suffering from dementia and CTE.

At his settlement evaluation, his medical records show, Arrobio didn’t know what season it was or what city he was in. But despite his obvious symptoms, he failed to qualify for money or league-funded treatment. Perhaps, a settlement neuropsychologist suggested, Arrobio was just dealing with a mood disorder related to his retirement.

Six months later, Arrobio died of heart failure at 73. An autopsy found CTE that had caused atrophy — tissue death so extensive that portions of his brain had shrunk, a telltale sign of most diseases that cause dementia. A routine brain MRI exam probably could have detected the atrophy, according to five experts in neuroscience. But the settlement’s evaluation didn’t include MRIs in 2017, nor does it today.

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By Will Hobson
Will Hobson is a national sports reporter for The Washington Post. He has previously worked for the Tampa Bay Times, the Daytona Beach News-Journal, and the Panama City News Herald. Twitter